Once is Happenstance, Twice is circumstance, 3 times is...Follow

Enemy action. So what should we make of the 4th time?

These cables are not indestructable, but they are fairly tough. Heavy rubber coatings, kevlar reinfoced weave, core steel cable for tension and strength, If it's a fiber optic cable it was put in in the last 15 years, and it was designed to at least have a chance of resisting most damage that your average ocean is going to throw at it. While a direct hit by a supertanker anchor would sever one, the cables themselves are maybe 2 feet wide, and its a big damned ocean. I could see one, maybe 2 accidents in a month under worst case scenarios, but 4 in the same general area?

Shipping charts clearly mark where these cables are, so idiots won't accidentally anchor on top of one. This just smells of something deliberate to me, and if so, whoever is doing it is setting a really bad precedent.

http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080202/tbs-india-mideast-internet-558302b.html

Another undersea Internet cable damaged in Mideast: Indian firm

NEW DELHI (AFP) - - Another Middle East undersea Internet cable has been damaged, adding to disruption in Indian online services caused when several lines were cut earlier this week, a cable operating firm said Saturday.

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The Falcon cable was cut 56 kilometres (35 miles) from Dubai, between Oman and the United Arab Emirates, according to its owner FLAG Telecom, part of India's Reliance Communications.

The company said on its website that a repair ship had been notified and was expected to arrive at the site in the next few days.

The cause of the latest cable damage was not immediately known.

Flag Telecom owns another undersea cable which was damaged off Egypt on Wednesday in the Mediterranean. Indian media reports have attributed that damage to a ship's anchor which dropped on the cable.

On the same day in Kuwait, the government reported two cables damaged by "weather conditions and maritime traffic."

The cable damage has left India's vital outsourcing industry grappling with major communications disruptions and businesses saying they could take up to two weeks to return to normal.

It has also disrupted Internet service across the Middle East and other parts of South Asia.

A repair ship was expected to arrive by next Tuesday to restore the FLAG Telecom cable that was damaged off Egypt, the company said.

Smaller Indian firms will be harder hit as they depend on a single service provider, said R.S Perhar, secretary of the Internet Service Providers' Association of India (ISPAI).

"But traffic has already started moving after being re-routed," Perhar said.

Around 90 percent of the services were expected to be restored by Sunday, the ISPAI said.

India's 11-billion-dollar outsourcing industry is made up of 1,250 firms that deliver services ranging from answering customer queries to processing credit card and mortgage applications.

The industry employs 700,000 people, serving clients mainly in the United States and Europe that sought to cut costs by farming out work to the country.

Out-of-work western helpdesk workers trying to get their jobs back?

Thanks for the times
That youve given me
The memories are all in my mind
And now that weve come
To the end of our rainbow
Theres something
I must say out loud
Youre once, twice
Three times a lady
Yes youre once twice
Three times a lady

And I love you
When we are together
The moments I cherish
With every beat of my heart
To touch you to hold you
To feel you to need you
Theres nothing to keep us apart
Youre once twice
Three times a lady
And I love you
I love you

Your average marine cable is between 200 and 500 feet down at least. Your average deep sea anchor is maybe 15 feet wide at the most.

Your average deep sea cable diameter is less than a foot.

It would be rather difficult to even delberatly hit the things once from the surface.

Who was using those cables to download their ****? All the viruses must have burned their way through the cables. Ether that or it was Bin Ladens underwater ninja strike team. Whichever of the 2 makes more sense.

Egypt says that the first two cables were not hit by shipsIf there were no ships and the damage was done by people then we're down to the umpteen nations which field submarines. We'll have this solved yet!

Who's to say that it's 'enemy' action? Plenty of foil-hatters who think it's the US and/or Israel tapping the cables. Personally, I reserve judgement due to a lack of knowledge on the subject.

This has a very simple explanation that I'm surprised nobody has been able to come up with yet.

It was the Cloverfield monster.

There have been earthquakes steadily moving across Turkey the past several years, they may have reached the Mediterranean by now

Mediterranean, eh?

Kraken.

Damn Jews trying to mate with our women

/sigh

Typical. Instead of going with the obvious choice (Muzzies, people, muzzies!), you instead go for the old tried-n-true Jew baiting. I just cain't learn ya, can I?

I'm with Kao on this one. Motive, means, and method tells the tale. Muzzies have the motive- they hate anything that advanced past the 13th century, the subs to make it happen, and the lack of skills to do it sneakily. Amatuer hour in the Middle East.

Totem

If the former was true, the latter would involve Aristole-designed diving bells or something.

I blame the Amish.